The present method in embodiments generally relates to ink jet printing. More particularly, the present method relates to detecting one or more improperly functioning ink jets and compensating for the improperly functioning ink jets with the remaining operational ink jets.
In ink jet printing, usually each jet of a print head within a printer is assigned the role of ejecting ink, as necessary, onto pre-specified areas which is currently in a jet's respective print zone. However, a jet sometimes improperly functions, fails, or substantially fails, that is the jet is unable to properly emit ink drops, examples of which may be due to either being clogged or electrical problems in its firing circuitry. When this occurs, the pre-specified areas that are assigned to the failed jet are not printed upon or not printed on properly. If one or more jets fail, the quality of the printed image may suffer and in some instances not be acceptable to a number of sources. Therefore, a need exists that allows for the end user of a printer to detect and enable software to substitute failed jets quickly, enabling continued operation of the printer with acceptable print quality. The ability of the end user to immediately substitute failed or improperly functioning jets may also allow more flexibility in the timing of a service call to repair the printer, since the printer has acceptable print quality. Redundancy, replace-ability and disposability are all common methods of using components that are unreliable or that wear out to build commercially successful products. Use of a jet substitution mode may be appropriate for print head technology, due for example, or in part to the long overall head life and the very large number of jets per head.